Economist Robert Heilbroner Dies at Age 85

A relative of ours spotted the obituary of Robert Heilbroner in the newspaper and let us know about it. His is one of the few we know of that specifically mentions Lewy body disease. That's why we thought it was worth noting here.

Heilbroner died in January 2005 at age 85. He was one of the most influential economic historians of the 20th century. A professor at the New School in New York City, he wrote more than 20 books. He was best known for his first book, The Worldly Philosophers: The Lives, Times, and Ideas of the Great Economic Thinkers, originally published in 1953. The book is an account of the lives and contributions of economists from Adam Smith and Karl Marx to John Maynard Keynes.

Although Heilbroner suffered from Lewy body disease for three years, the immediate cause of death was a brainstem stroke. Obituaries from the Boston Globe and other sources describe Lewy body disease as a disease similar to Alzheimer's. The Financial Times called it "a rare Alzheimer's-like illness." We think they may have erred in calling it rare.